


Our finest gifts we bring pa rum pum pum pum

by Strength_in_pain



Series: Comforting Peter Parker because he deserves love [22]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: ? - Freeform, Cute, Flash Thompson Has A Sense Of Humor, Flash Thompson Nice, Flash Thompson Redemption, Fluff and Crack, Funny, Funny Flash, Gen, I Actually Don’t Know What To Call This, Midtown High, POV Flash Thompson, Peter Parker Gets a Gift, Secret Santa, if you can call it that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28126692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strength_in_pain/pseuds/Strength_in_pain
Summary: No, if he was going to do this, then he was going to do it right. He was going to make sure Peter loved his present. In order for this to happen, Flash was going to have to do something terrible, horrible, unforgivable... he was going to have to observe Peter Parker for a day.ORFlash gets Peter as his Secret Santa for a school party, and he can’t decided what to get for him.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Flash Thompson
Series: Comforting Peter Parker because he deserves love [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698844
Comments: 27
Kudos: 120





	Our finest gifts we bring pa rum pum pum pum

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lindy_Moonfall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lindy_Moonfall/gifts).



> Hi everyone :)
> 
> Quick disclaimer: If you ever bought anyone socks as a secret Santa gift, you did amazing. It is not a bad gift, don’t listen to Flash. He’s a little spoiled when it comes to gift giving (^-^*) 
> 
> That’s all folks, please enjoy!!

Flash Thompson’s fingers were flying at the speed of light, crashing against his laptop’s keyboard vigorously. He stole a quick glance at the time at the bottom of the screen and slapped a hand against his face. This was bad. He was in homeroom, and he really needed to finish his second period assignment before... well... second period. He knew he would be busy solving problems on the White Board in first period, so he was essentially doomed if he didn’t finish this instant. 

“Hey Flash,” his friend, Tiny said as he walked towards the back of the room. “Aw man, you look like shit bro.”

“Thanks,” Flash muttered, hands still typing despite the interruption. 

“What’s the matter? You stay up all night or something?”

“Yeah, I’m trying to finish this paper for English.”

“Aw that was due today?”

“Yeah... it’s worth like 10 percent of our final grade.”

“Oh good. Then it don’t matter that I didn’t do mine.” 

Flash didn’t have time to correct his poorly mistaken friend. He was so close to finishing. One more paragraph. _Come on, come on, think. Just wrap it up._

“Good morning class.” Mr. Harrington said when the final bell for homeroom rang. “As you know, we’re going to have our Christmas party this Friday, so today I want us to pick out our Secret Santa’s.”

“No. Dammit!” Flash groaned, sinking in his hard metal seat. 

“Mr. Thompson, so nice of you to be in the spirit of things this year. If you don’t want to participate in our annual gift exchange you don’t have to, but please try to refrain from using obscenities.”

Flash peeked away from his laptop to see the entire class looking back at him, and he ducked away shyly. “Sorry, I do want to be a part of the gift exchange, Mr. Harrington.”

Mr. Harrington nodded, “Excellent! Everyone pick a name from the Santa hat. I’ll be coming around to you.”

Flash managed to spit out his last few ideas into his paper and saved the document before slamming his laptop shut. Finally finished. He could email it to his teacher later, rather than hand in a paper copy. That was the nice thing about Midtown High. It was a science and technology school so they were up to date on the latest and greatest technology, and accepted things like virtual emailed assignments. 

Mr. Harrington reached Flash’s desk and held out the Santa hat. Flash grabbed a handful of papers, and filtered through them until he was only holding one. He pulled it out and Mr. Harrington walked away. Flash unfolded the tiny sheet of paper to see who he was supposed to get a gift for and -

No.

No no no no no no! 

Why did this always happen to him? 

There in big green letters were the words Peter Parker scribbled with a sharpie. Of course with Flash’s luck he would pick the one person he wanted least of all. There were like twenty other options, how could fate be so cruel? 

“Mr. Harrington I got myself,” a girl in the front row said.

“You can trade with me!” Flash shouted.

“No need for that,” Mr. Harrington exclaimed as if he were about to save the day. He handed the girl another piece of paper and put her name back in the hat and re-shuffled.

Flash clenched his jaw. Looks like there was no getting out of it. He was going to have to go shopping for Peter Parker. 

____________________

It became apparent to Flash during study hall that he had no idea what to buy Parker for the holiday party. 

What does he like? 

_Nerdy things._

But what nerdy things did Flash know about? He tried to think. Glasses with tape in the center came to mind, but Parker didn’t wear glasses. So there would be no point in buying him tape. Maybe a book. He probably likes to read.

But what kind of book? Knowing Peter, he’s probably read them all so that would be equally as useless. This was impossible.

He was tempted to get him something small like a pair of socks. But Flash wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t going to completely ruin Peter’s Christmas by getting him a boring gift like socks. Pssh. 

No, if he was going to do this, then he was going to do it right. He was going to make sure Peter loved his present. In order for this to happen, Flash was going to have to do something terrible, horrible, unforgivable... he was going to have to observe Peter Parker for a day. 

He began his observations during Lunch by sitting at a table two rows away from Peter’s. It was awful, just as Flash thought it would be. _Nothing happened_. It was like watching paint dry. Peter and his friends were talking about nothing and that was it. 

Flash did notice Peter was slurping a Starbucks drink every so often. Come to think of it, Peter seemed to drink Starbucks a lot during class. Flash knew Peter was tight with money, and Starbucks was pretty expensive so maybe Peter would like a gift card? 

But no, that wasn’t good enough for a Secret Santa mission. He wanted to really surprise Peter. Pretty much everyone was probably going to get each other gift cards. Flash needed to stand out with his gift if he wanted it to be spectacular. 

_________________

So in retrospect, following Peter around outside of school might have not been his best idea. Not because he wasn’t finding out anything interesting, but because he realized he appeared to be stocking another dude throughout the streets of New York. And perhaps the whole hoodie over the head thing, with his hands shoved in his pockets and sunglasses on, made him look even more suspicious. It became most apparent when some woman slapped him with a purse, while another one threatened to call the police. Since then, Flash had to keep his distance even further away to not attract so much attention. 

At the crosswalk, he purposely stood behind a few sweaty old men in order to avoid being noticed. But after the smelly subway and the pain in his feet from walking so much, Flash knew a car was probably the best gift he could give Peter Parker. Too bad a car was WAY too expensive for a Secret Santa gift exchange. It would have been cool. Flash would have directed the whole class to look out the window at the student parking lot and BAM! Tied with a red ribbon would have been a brand spanking new Audi. Oh well. 

Peter stopped at some weird Deli place on his route home, so Flash watched casually through the window, wincing as his brand new designer coat rubbed against the coat of a homeless person. Feeling a pinch of guilt, he reached in his pocket and gave the man a twenty. “Merry Christmas.” He said. 

“Thank you, boy.” The homeless man said giving him a big smile, and Flash felt even more guilty for being upset about his designer coat when this man was probably freezing. Patting his pockets, Flash removed the rest of his personal belongings before slipping his coat off and offering it to the man. 

The stranger dropped his smile and shook his head. “I can’t accept that. It’s too much.”

“Are you sure? Because I have more at home. I wouldn’t mind if you kept it. I’m sure it gets really cold out here.”

“At least we haven’t had a big snow storm yet.” The man replied. He hesitantly reached out for the coat, skeptical, as if he thought Flash were going to pull it away from him and laugh. But Flash would never do such a thing. He waited until the homeless man took his coat before turning back to the Deli window. Peter was still blabbing his head off to the cashier. Flash couldn’t read lips, but it was moments like these that made him want to learn. 

Maybe Flash could get him a gift card for the Deli? Are those even a real thing? Again, gift cards were too obvious. He needed to aim higher.

It didn’t take long for Parker to move out of the Deli and walk quickly down the sidewalk. Flash’s feet were already killing him. It was a bad day to wear dress shoes. But this fast pace was adding to his pain big time. 

Flash didn’t know what he excepted to find out about Peter today. Maybe he was expecting Peter would walk into a book store, hold up a book, and say this is the one I want. However, he certainly never expected to witness Peter Parker being suicidal and bolt into oncoming traffic. For real, he just dashed across in the middle of a very busy road. It was like he wanted to get run over! One minute he was walking down the sidewalk and the next, he’s dodging between two moving pickup trucks. The dude went mental! 

Snapping his head to the right and then to the left, Flash was frantically searching the streets to see if another person thought what he witnessed was rather odd. But no one seemed phased. It was New York, after all. Everyone was busy with their own worlds, worrying about their own errands. But still, Flash wanted someone else to tell him what to do. Should he run into oncoming traffic too? Try to follow? He started to move, but when a taxi zipped past, he leaped backwards onto the sidewalk. Nope, okay, not going to happen. He’s not risking his life. 

Parker officially disappeared behind an alley anyways. Maybe it was a shortcut to his home? Flash wasn’t sure. All he knew was he needed to go home himself. He was too cold and too tired. The only problem was he wasn’t sure how to get home. 

Flash was really lost now. Lost on what to buy Peter and lost on how to get home. He tried to catch the subway again, and after a few wrong turns he made it to the station thanks to google maps. 

When he arrived home, he ran into his father’s office, not even bothering to knock, but his Dad wasn’t there. 

“Mom, I have a question about what to buy someone -“ he said when entering his mother’s room. 

But that was empty too. 

Flash found a note on his mother’s bed saying she was spending the evening with her friends from work. He sighed and sat on her bed. 

Maybe his friend on Instagram would know. This girl he’s been talking too, well, he is pretty sure she’s a girl, he never actually asked for her pronouns. Either way, this person has been an amazing friend to Flash the last few months. They love talking about Spider-Man and the TV show Supernatural together. He pulled out his phone from his backpack and gave her a DM. 

While he was waiting for a response, he checked his timeline, and stories and by the time he was finished an hour had passed and he didn’t even realize it. Slowly, he slid off the bed and went into the kitchen to heat up a Mac and Cheese packet. He sat at the table by himself and ate his dinner. When he checked Instagram again, his friend messaged him back.

“Lol, Secret Santa’s are the worst. Just get some socks.”

Flash snapped his phone screen off and tossed it on the table. He sighed and grabbed his phone again, clicking on the Amazon app. When all else fails, check Amazon. He searched gift after gift, not seeing anything worth while until suddenly his eyes landed on a Star Wars Death Star 3D LED Lamp. Holy shit! It was glowing in the dark, and it looked like a floating holograph. Flash knew Peter would love it. And it was only 34 dollars. Not too bad. More expensive than a gift card but cheaper than a car. Perfect. Flash added it to his cart. Now he could focus on the fun stuff like buying wrapping paper and bows. 

__________________

Inside the warmish classroom, teens were mingling and updating each other on the latest news. Christmas Parties in school were always fun. There was food; pizza and dip, and chips, and drinks. Flash grabbed a red cup of Coke-a-cola before taking a seat in his chair. Mr. Harrington was going to play a movie for the class on the projector once they finished their Secret Santa exchange. 

Flash checked his present which was safely sitting on his desk. He managed to wrap it decently well. It wasn’t as amazing as his mom’s presents, nor did it look as great as Betty’s wrapped present in her arms, but at least it was wrapped in gift wrap, unlike Ned’s who was wrapped in construction paper. 

Everyone was abuzz about the gift exchange, and the class representatives had to shoo away a couple of lurkers that were trying to sneak a peak at who had who.

Once the gifts were all turned in, and no one spoiled it by sneaking a peak at the name tags, Mr. Harrington began to pass out the gifts one by one. 

Flash got his and immediately noticed how nice the wrapping job was. He wondered if it was Betty’s gift. He couldn’t remember exactly what her present looked like. Glancing at the gift tag, Flash noticed it was from Cindy, his decathlon buddy. 

From the corner of his eye, he saw Peter gulp when he read the name tag. The look on his face was priceless. He probably thought the gift was going to be something awful. How surprised he would be. 

Abraham was the boy who ended up with Ned’s construction paper gift. He gave Ned a nudge and complimented the wrapping job. “I like the hand drawn candy canes.”

“Thanks man. My little sister wanted to decorate it with me.”

“Tell her it was appreciated.”

Mr. Harrington finished passing out the last present to Brad Davis. “Okay, everyone open away!”

Simultaneously, the class started tearing apart the wrapping paper, but Flash was going very slow. He wanted to watch Peter’s reaction. 

He was so glad he witnessed it, because Peter’s jaw must have dropped to the floor. He was frozen, staring at the box like it was from another plant. 

“No way. Ned, look. Look at this!” 

The whole class practically stopped opening their gifts to stare at the 3D Star Wars lamp. 

“Whoa Peter, who got you that? That’s incredible.” Abraham whispered, admiring the box. Peter’s eyes locked on Flash’s and he smiled softly. 

“Uh... Flash did.”

Now the whole room officially stopped opening their gifts and stared. It was very uncomfortable, actually. Flash needed to shrug it off as if it were no big deal.

“Yeah well, it was on Amazon and I just happened to come across it so yeah.”

“Thank you.” Peter sounded so genuine. It really wasn’t that big a deal. 

Realizing he still needed to open his gift, Flash gently removed the snowman wrapping paper and saw a box. Inside the box were various stress balls of all shapes and sizes. That was too hilarious. He turned to Cindy and started squeezing one.

“I figured you could use one of those instead of picking on my friends.”

Flash nodded a little sadly. He supposed he deserved that dig. It was still a thoughtful gift, and it really was perfect for him. He watched the other students open their gifts. Cindy got a book from MJ. Ned got a sweater from Betty. Brad got Betty a sparkling notebook. Abraham got MJ a subscription to a podcast. Ned got Abraham a gift card to Chipotle. And Peter got Brad a watch. 

Apparently Peter had someone he wasn’t too fond of for his Secret Santa too. But in the end, he got Brad something nice. Flash knew he would. Cause Peter Parker’s not a monster, as much as Flash hates to admit it, he’s not. 

“Dude, that’s probably the most expensive gift given in a long time, you need to thank him.” Flash overheard Abraham whisper during the movie. 

“I did thank him.”

“You could do better.”

“Hey, I’m trying to watch the movie here.” MJ snapped and Abraham apologized but didn’t drop the subject. “A thank you card would be nice.”

“A thank you card? Flash might laugh in my face.”

At last, their extended homeroom hours were finally up, and they had to carry on with their final day of classes. However, most of the teachers didn’t have much work for them to do. If anything, they spent the whole day watching movies in almost all of their classes.

So in economics, Peter quietly approached Flash’s desk during the movie. 

“Hey, um, I just wanted to thank you again for the lamp. I know it was probably expensive and it probably seems stupid to you. But I really love the Star Wars Death Star... my Uncle and I... we used to geek out over it and well, it means a lot to me. So thank you.”

Flash didn’t know why his lips curled into a smile just then, or why he was suddenly at a loss for words, but he did know that his goal to get Peter the best Secret Santa Gift ever was officially accomplished. 

“You’re welcome. This doesn’t change anything though.”

“Oh of course not.”

“I still think you’re a nerd.”

Peter was grinning too wide, “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

**Author's Note:**

> We’re getting closer to end of this little holiday series I’m doing, and I’m almost ready to post my larger chapter story, and OMG you guys, I’m so excited you have no idea!!!! I really hope you like it because I am absolutely in love with writing it. I think I’ll post the first chapter the day after Christmas that’s how excited I am! 
> 
> I’ve got two more Christmas stories in the works as well! I hope all is going well with everyone! Feel free to comment anything, even if it’s just what you’ve been up to recently. Love you guys! :)


End file.
